Plastic vs. paper — the cat angle

After our recent ruminations on how the plastic vs. paper debate affects the disposal of dog poop, our attention was piqued by a recent pitch from a publicist for a woman who has… I am not making this up, I’ve seen it on video… toilet trained her cat!

Yes, I know, you’re thinking that only Robert de Niro’s character in Meet the Parents could possibly do this. But apparently not. Rebecca Rescate, while living in a tiny New York City apartment, trained her “tuxedo cat,” Samantha, to crouch over the toilet before she lets it fly. Don’t believe me? Go to www.citikitty.com and take a look for yourself. Rescate says it typically takes four to six weeks to toilet train a cat that is at least three months old and currently uses a litter box.
Publicist Francesca Simon of the Stephenson Group, as I guess must be required by federal law for all enviro pitches within six weeks of Earth Day, brought up the Earth Day angle of reducing the “large carbon footprint of kitty litter.” No lie. Not only is the carbon footprint from mining and hauling around kitty litter huge — it’s even been targeted for mining under the infamous General Mining Law of 1872.

However, we should recall that, with or without kitty litter involved, there are some reasons to question the environmental advisability of flushing cat poop down the toilet. Along the California coast, otter populations appear to have been reduced by exposure to Toxoplasma gondii, a parasite whose eggs can be transmitted through cat poop.

Scientists led by Pat Conrad of University of California Davis looked for the oocysts — eggs — of the parasite. They found them in large freshwater discharges, probably from cats pooping outdoors. They failed to tie the phenomenon to municipal sewage discharges, but last we heard Conrad was still recommending that people dispose of cat waste by double bagging it. In plastic, of course.